"Pride month is a month-long celebration of LGBTQ+ people (see definition below) and the history, culture and contributions of these people and their communities” Dictionary.com
During this month there will be a huge variety of events throughout the UK including protests, parades, fairs, concerts, drag shows, talks and fundraisers.
Pride marches have been taking place all over the world for over 50 years since the 1969 Stonewall Riots/Uprising in New York City, USA. In the 60s and 70s, police raids on gay establishments were very common. On the 28th of June, members of the LGBT community in Greenwich Village decided to fight back after a particularly brutal police raid on the Stonewall Inn. There were several nights of protests afterwards which helped bring together the LTBTQ+ community in NY and would help lead to steps forward in LGBTQ+ rights and representation.
Homosexuality was illegal in England until 1967 when it was decriminalized in private by the Sexual Offenses Act (though you could still be punished if displaying “homosexual behaviour” in public). The law wasn’t changed in Scotland until 1980 and in Northern Ireland until 1982. Homosexuality is still illegal in more than 60 counties and punishable by the death sentence in 10 countries.
Section 28 was a law introduced between 1988 and 2003 which made promotion of homosexuality illegal. The law was repealed in 2003 but made life very difficult for LTBTQ+ people at the time because their sexual orientation was seen as wrong, and children were not taught about this in school at this time.
A definition of LGBTQ+ (from www.outandequal.org) see site for more information.
Lesbian: a woman who is attracted to other women
Gay: a man who is attracted to other men
Bisexual: a person who is attracted to both men and women
Transgender: a person whose gender differs from their sex assigned at birth. A transgender man is someone who was assigned female at birth (AFAB) and identifies as a man. A transgender woman is someone who was assigned male at birth (AMAB) and identifies as a woman.
Queer: A word with multiple meanings. Individuals often use queer as a shorthand way of referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals as a whole group. For others, the term is also used as a specific self-identification. It is also a term that is considered offensive by some and should be used with great care.
+ includes many other orientations such as intersex, non-binary, asexual and pansexual.
The term LGBTQ+ aims to be as inclusive as possible, but there is variation as to which acronym to use: LGBTQIA is used commonly also to include intersex and asexual people. The choice of initialism can vary depending on the organization or even country: LGBTIH has been observed in India to include the hijra third gender. Follow this link https://outandequal.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/LGBTQ-Terminology-2019.pdf for a glossary of words and also problematic terms which are likely to cause offence.
London Pride will take place on the 1st of July with a march of over 50,000 people from Hyde Park Corner to Whitehall place. If you Google “pride month calendar London 2023” you will find details about the many events happening this month.
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